Steve Inskeep
Steve Inskeep is a host of NPR's Morning Edition, as well as NPR's morning news podcast Up First.
Known for interviews with presidents and Congressional leaders, Inskeep has a passion for stories of the less famous: Pennsylvania truck drivers, Kentucky coal miners, U.S.-Mexico border detainees, Yemeni refugees, California firefighters, American soldiers.
Since joining Morning Edition in 2004, Inskeep has hosted the program from New Orleans, Detroit, San Francisco, Cairo, and Beijing; investigated Iraqi police in Baghdad; and received a Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award for "The Price of African Oil," on conflict in Nigeria. He has taken listeners on a 2,428-mile journey along the U.S.-Mexico border, and 2,700 miles across North Africa. He is a repeat visitor to Iran and has covered wars in Syria and Yemen.
Inskeep says Morning Edition works to "slow down the news," making sense of fast-moving events. A prime example came during the 2008 Presidential campaign, when Inskeep and NPR's Michele Norris conducted "The York Project," groundbreaking conversations about race, which received an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Silver Baton for excellence.
Inskeep was hired by NPR in 1996. His first full-time assignment was the 1996 presidential primary in New Hampshire. He went on to cover the Pentagon, the Senate, and the 2000 presidential campaign of George W. Bush. After the Sept. 11 attacks, he covered the war in Afghanistan, turmoil in Pakistan, and the war in Iraq. In 2003, he received a National Headliner Award for investigating a military raid gone wrong in Afghanistan. He has twice been part of NPR News teams awarded the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Silver Baton for coverage of Iraq.
On days of bad news, Inskeep is inspired by the Langston Hughes book, Laughing to Keep From Crying. Of hosting Morning Edition during the 2008 financial crisis and Great Recession, he told Nuvo magazine when "the whole world seemed to be falling apart, it was especially important for me ... to be amused, even if I had to be cynically amused, about the things that were going wrong. Laughter is a sign that you're not defeated."
Inskeep is the author of Instant City: Life and Death in Karachi, a 2011 book on one of the world's great megacities. He is also author of Jacksonland, a history of President Andrew Jackson's long-running conflict with John Ross, a Cherokee chief who resisted the removal of Indians from the eastern United States in the 1830s.
He has been a guest on numerous TV programs including ABC's This Week, NBC's Meet the Press, MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell Reports, CNN's Inside Politics and the PBS Newshour. He has written for publications including The New York Times, Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, and The Atlantic.
A native of Carmel, Indiana, Inskeep is a graduate of Morehead State University in Kentucky.
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For close watchers of the Catholic Church, the election of a U.S. pope seemed impossible. The "Trump effect" on the U.S. and global order changed that, papal expert Massimo Faggioli told NPR. -
The moment a new pope is elected, what we know about Pope Leo XIV, the U.S. and China hold trade talks over the weekend.
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NPR's Steve Inskeep speaks with Reverend William Lego, of St Turibius Parish in Chicago, who attended seminary with Pope Leo XIV.
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Catholics worldwide have a new spiritual leader: Pope Leo XIV. He's the first pontiff ever from the United States. What else do we know about the new pope?
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NPR's Steve Inskeep speaks with Massimo Faggioli, professor of theology and religious studies at Villanova University — the new Pope's alma mater — about the direction the Catholic Church will likely take under Pope Leo XIV.
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Trade negotiators from the U.S. and China are starting talks this weekend in Switzerland. These are the first high-level trade talks between the two countries since President Trump returned to the White House. -
Efforts to mediate the India-Pakistan conflict are not going to work "unless the U.S. steps in with full sincerity," Praveen Donthi, a senior analyst with the International Crisis Group, told NPR. -
Hear the latest on the escalating conflict between India and Pakistan, Trump administration wants to send migrants to Libya, Federal Reserve policymakers hold interest rates steady for now.
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NPR's Steve Inskeep speaks with author Walter Isaacson about the world America made after World War II.
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Trump's budget proposal for next year includes cuts to some federal agencies paired with an increase in defense spending. What's not included is evidence of the billions DOGE has claimed to save.
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President Trump appeared on "Meet the Press with Kristen Welker" and was asked about the due process rights of immigrants. When asked if a he needs to uphold the Constitution, he said, "I don't know."
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Trump says "I don't know" when asked whether he needs to uphold Constitution, Israel plans to limit way food aid distributed in Gaza, Sean 'Diddy' Combs' sex trafficking trial begins.
